<p>I was watching the Kennedy Center Honors telecast the other night and was aghast that they utilized the “Springtime for Hitler” portion from The Producers as part of the salute to Mel Brooks. I just couldn’t get over the President of the United States watching and laughing at someone portraying Adolf Hitler, wearing a swastika on one arm and SS collar patches. I think a few in the live audience were also uneasy, from watching the crowd reactions.</p>
<p>A little background…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I have been watching the original movie version of The Producers since the late 1960s and consider it brilliant. In watching the movie, you are well aware of the context of the Springtime for Hitler song and dance number within the plot. You also see the looks of disgust on the faces of the audience in the “theatre.”</p></li>
<li><p>I am not Jewish.</p></li>
<li><p>I do not consider myself “overly sensitive” in matters of taste and decorum.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>However, I do think this was WAY over the top.</p>
<p>I didn’t have a problem with it at all. I believe they chose it because it is, without question, the most recognizable song that Mel Brooks ever wrote. And the salute to him prior to the “live” version gave the context within the movie/show (and showed you the audience looking aghast). How can you take a gay Hitler seriously, particularly after the Salute to the Inquisition? Omitting it would have been like not doing “Born in the USA” for the Springsteen salute.</p>
<p>And I am Jewish (as of course are Brooks, Gene Wilder & the late, great Zero Mostel), and the daughter of Holocaust survivors.</p>
<p>In the original movie version, which is the only version I have ever seen, the Hitler character, played by Dick Shawn, is not gay, but a drugged-out hippie type. His first song, sung with 3 female backing musicians, is called Love Power.</p>
<p>They could have used fart scenes from Blazing Saddles, or some footage featuring OJ, or how bout that scene where Cleavon Little points a gun at his own head and memorably says, “Hold it! Next man makes a move, the n***** gets it!” </p>
<p>Right, but in the musical and in the performance they showed on the broadcast, there was no question that the actor who played Hitler was flamingly gay, and therefore, so was Adolph.</p>
<p>Just watched it–wow, it’s Glee’s Mr. Schuster! </p>
<p>UMDAD, keep in mind that the stage musical version has been an enormous Broadway hit. It’s travelled across the country, and been made into yet another movie version. I’d expect that a huge number of people in the audience at the Kennedy Center already saw the musical on stage or in a movie theater. Like you, the spouse and I are huge, huge, huge fans of the original film. We saw the stage version, and were bent over laughing at the “Springtime For Hitler” number. I remember thinking that it was in some ways the ultimate humiliation of Hitler, that he’d become a figure of such ridicule and camp. And now to have the president of the US laughing at Hitler–even better. </p>
<p>I was very touched to watch Mel Brooks mouthing the lyrics. </p>
<p>The movie got so-so reviews, but you should definitely see the musical. At least pick up the soundtrack. I remember that we had to caution our kids (then in elementary school) to not sing “Keep It Gay” at school :)</p>
<p>As Mel Brooks has said time and again in interviews over the course of his life, the best way to counter the evil of a diabolical madman is by humiliation.</p>
<p>Matthew Morrison was not playing Hitler. That was Gary Beach. :)</p>
<p>The Producers is clearly Brooks’ theatrical masterpiece and my guess is that everyone in that theatre understood that. To have neglected to use Springtime for Hitler would have been ridiculous in a Mel Brooks tribute. This was clearly a tribute to the musical, not either film version. The show was a hit on Broadway, on tour, and around the world for years and broke records for the amount of Tonys it won.</p>
<p>Another Jew here who was not bothered in the slightest (but then H and I have been known to occasionally sing a duet of “Springtime for Hitler” apropos of nothing, being devoted fans of the original movie). I was reduced to moosh by both the Mel Brooks and Dave Brubeck tributes, something about watching these two elderly men looking back at their life achievements at what amounts to our nation’s version of a knighthood ceremony left a big lump in my throat. (Not so much for Bruce Springsteen, whose charms have always been lost on me.)</p>
<p>I was not offended by the inclusion of the song in the show, although when I first heard the song in the latest movie version, I thought it was rather shocking. I mentioned this discussion to my H, and he said he did think it was in poor taste to use this song at a formal tribute occasion.</p>
<p>The president of the Kennedy Center, an old HS friend of mine, is Jewish and gay. I am guessing that he’d have heard about the plan before it aired, and if he had an issue with it, it would have been pulled.</p>
<p>George Stevens, Jr. wrote and produced the show, as he has since he started the Honors 32 years ago. He is the one who asked Tony Award winning director and choreographer, Susan Stroman, to supervise the Mel Brooks segment. My guess is that George has an excellent idea, after doing this for over three decades, what can and can’t, what should and shouldn’t, be included. Keep in mind that the entire evening is not televised, there are always ‘cuts’, so if anyone involved with the evening felt that this would be a concern, they had more than three weeks to make their voices heard, while the final editing was done for the broadcast on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Who (especially among Jewish people) doesn’t know about the context of this song in The Producers? It’s not only appropriate to include, but completely nonoffensive!</p>
<p>I would just like to add that, for those of you who have only seen the musical or the movie made from it, please rent the original movie with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. It’s light years better than the remake.</p>
<p>When they showed the montage, the “Springtime for Hitler” bit was accompanied by “audience” shots showing their disgust and horror.</p>
<p>I don’t think the Hitler character was supposed to be played as ‘gay’ (that would make me frown, definitely), there are gay characters in The Producers and they are very Out and Proud!! It’s a great show, neither one of the movie productions measures up at all to the stage show. I’ve never laughed so much in a theater. Mel Brooks is an absolute genius, but so is Susan Stroman, and Matthew Broderick is an under-rated actor, practically nobody can play the everyday SOB like he can.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Kennedy Center Honors is great television, do people agree with that? Jon Stewart was wonderful, so was Herbie Hancock, Aretha (!!!), Carl Reiner, Sting, Scorcese, etc! I have to say, for me the best was Dave Brubeck – what a beautiful tribute to a great artist. I was crying!</p>
<p>(I thought Obama, at the end when he was talking to Springsteen, had the look on his face of: I’m one of the cool kids now, I have cool friends. I must say, it was adorable!)</p>
<p>Springtime is the greatest musical number ever. Art is supposed to shock and teach and entertain. </p>
<p>But I prefer these lines from The Inquisition:</p>
<p>Hey Torquemada, whaddya say?
I just came back from the auto-da-fe.
The auto-da-fe? What’s the auto-da-fe?
It’s what you oughtn’t do but do anyway.</p>